


Please don't be the hero(in)

by TetrodotoxinB



Series: Bad Things Bingo 2018 [10]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Danny is panicking, Everyone is fine, Find the cure, Happy Ending, Heroin, Heroin OD, Hurt/Comfort, Needles, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Square filled: Find the Cure, Steve is high as a kite, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-08 19:52:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15937127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TetrodotoxinB/pseuds/TetrodotoxinB
Summary: Five-0 raids a club and one of the patrons thinks the cops ought to loosen up. Unfortunately, their perp's definition of "relaxation" has some dangerous consequences for Steve.





	Please don't be the hero(in)

**Author's Note:**

> Oodles of thanks to Jenny for beta'ing. Any errors that remain are because I poked around after she left and I fucked it up again.
> 
> Created for Bad Things Happen Bingo to fill the square Find the Cure (which in this case is Narcan).

Danny rounded the corner to see Steve ripping a needle and syringe from his thigh and glaring at the man who was crouched under the table. 

“What the fuck was that?” Danny shouted, waving his left hand while he kept his right firmly on his pistol. 

Steve dropped the syringe on the table and put both hands back on his weapon. “My partner asked you a question. What did you inject me with?” Steve asked the snivelly little under-table dweller.

The perp, whose hair was slicked back with more product than even Danny could justify, actually had the audacity to laugh. “Relax, man. You just need to loosen up a little, maybe stop harassing a bunch of adults who are just trying to have a good time.”

“‘A good time’?” Danny shouted. “You think heroin is a good time? It was heroin, wasn’t it? That’s what you little freaks like to shoot up with around here, right?”

“Yeah,” answered the grease-weasel, sounding pretty pleased with himself.

“Fuck,” Danny muttered. 

Beside them, Kono and Chin hurried to a stop.

“Boss, you’re not looking so good,” Chin commented.

Steve holstered his gun and rubbed at his eyes.

“He does not look so good because this moron here injected Steve with heroin,” Danny explained.

Chin and Kono’s eyes widened almost comically but no one smiled. Steve didn’t reply, just started pulling at the velcro tabs on his kevlar vest.

“Steve, what are you doing?” Danny demanded.

“‘M hot, Danny,” Steve replied.

Danny watched Steve peel his vest off and drop it on the nearest table. Steve stumbled as he did, and Chin caught him by the arm. 

“Easy, Steve,” Chin advised.

And then Steve threw up all over the floor. Danny squeezed the handle of his gun and shifted his feet, all too aware of what it looked like when someone mainlined a full hit of heroin. That Steve didn’t have a tolerance built up could only complicate the fact that their perp had apparently gotten lucky and hit Steve’s femoral artery.

The greasy little weasel under table laughed. “Yeah, man. That’s when the good trip sets in.”

“Hey, no one was talking to you, asshole. Shut up,” Danny called. “Kono, can you get this dumbass out of here?”

“Sure thing,” she answered, and dragged weasel-boy out from under the table, slamming him down hard as she slipped ziptie-handcuffs over his wrists.

“Aw, you’re not gonna let me stay for the show?” he whined.

“No, Dapper Dan — which by the way you need to lay off with the hair care products — you are going to jail. You assaulted a police officer and were in possession of a controlled substance. So no, you are not going to ‘stay for the show,’ you absolute imbecile,” Danny explained, his hands waving and pointing wildly all the while.

“Come on,” Kono ordered as she hauled the perp to his feet. She shoved him through the club to the front door where a group of uniformed officers was waiting outside.

“Danno, I’m really tired,” Steve murmured.

Danny pulled his flashlight off the top of his pistol, holstered his weapon, and grabbed Steve by the face. “Look at me. Hey, Steve, pay attention here. Look at me.”

Steve blinked lazily and slowly dragged his eyes to Danny.

“There, good. Now hold still,” Danny ordered.

He shined the light in Steve’s eyes, keeping a tight grip on his chin so that he couldn’t turn away. After a moment, when Steve’s eyes didn’t dilate at all, Danny turned off the light and slipped it into his pocket. 

Steve was pliant for Danny as he checked Steve’s pulse, both on his neck and wrist at the same time.

“Why are you feeling on me, Danno?” Steve asked, his voice softer and his diction less crisp.

“I’m checking your pulse, dummy.” Danny held his fingers against Steve’s pulse points for a few seconds longer, feeling the beat there slow gradually, and then turned to Chin. “Make him walk. Don’t let him sit. Don’t let him lie down. He’s OD’ing. There’s a Narcan kit in the car. I’ll be right back.”

Chin nodded, but Danny was already racing for the door of the club. 

The car was parked just down the block and Danny flung the trunk open as soon as he skidded to a stop behind it. 

“Come on, come on. I swear to God, Steven McGarrett, you have to learn to organize better. Where the fuck did you put the Narcan kit, you idiot?”

Danny tossed the first aid twice to no avail. He checked under and in the ammo can and in the box of grenades that Danny had told him to remove from his car last month. Finally, stuffed into the side pouch of Steve’s gym bag, was the Narcan kit.

“Oh, thank fuck.”

Danny snagged the kit, slammed the trunk, and barrelled back down the block to the club, shouting at everyone to get the hell out of his way as he ran. When Danny got back inside, Kono and Chin each had an arm around Steve to hold him up but his legs were barely moving as they walked him. 

“EMS is inbound,” Chin called to Danny.

Danny let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and he set about tearing open the kit. He didn’t relish the idea of sticking Steve with a needle — he’d certainly never liked the times he’d stuck an addict — but for once he was glad he had the injectible stuff, if only so it would work faster. Waiting the extra minute for the spray to kick in might just fray the last of his sanity. 

Steve didn’t move or even seem to acknowledge Danny as Danny pressed the autoinjector against his thigh. The whole thing only took about five seconds, and then the automated lady from the injector was admonishing Danny to get a refill for his Narcan. He threw the spent cartridge on a nearby table and rubbed the lump under the injection site, hoping to get the antidote into Steve’s bloodstream just a little quicker.

“Come on, Steve. Need you to talk to me. Come on.”

Danny knelt in front of Steve, just rubbing his thigh, while the world seemed to grind to a halt all around him. 

“Danny, we should keep him moving,” Chin said quietly.

Immediately, Danny stood up and moved out of the way. “Yeah, yeah, go,” he said numbly.

Desperate to keep his hands busy while he waited for EMS, if only to avoid a full-scale panic attack, Danny picked up the detritus from the kit and chucked it in a nearby garbage can. Grabbing an evidence bag from a uniform outside, Danny bagged the needle that Grease-Weasel had stuck Steve with.

Only then did Danny let himself go check on Steve again.

Danny made his way over to Steve where he practically was being dragged around by Chin and Kono. “Hey, buddy,” Danny said quietly. 

He took Steve’s wrist into his hand again and brought his other hand up to touch Steve’s neck. 

“Hey,” Steve slurred.

Steve’s pulse was stronger and steadier, and Danny managed to relax some of the tension in his shoulders.

“Touchin’ me ‘gain, Danno,” Steve mumbled with a smile.

Danny laughed, half amused and half hysterical. “That’s your concern? That I’m touching you? I just stabbed you with a needle too, but of course me touching you is the real problem.” 

“‘S not a problem. Feels good,” Steve mumbled.

Danny looked away from Steve to see Kono biting her bottom lip, clearly holding back a laugh, and Chin smirking. 

“You’re still high, Steve,” Danny declared dryly. Clearly the Narcan hadn’t been enough to sober Steve up all the way just yet — just another reason EMS needed to hurry the hell up since this dose wouldn’t last forever. But the last thing Danny needed, other than Steve dying on him, was for him to get all _weird_ in the meantime.

“Yeah, I am. Dude was right. Feels good now that the puking is over,” Steve said. A huge, dopey grin split his face and he seemed to be getting less and less wobbly as the seconds went by. 

“Great, glad that you’re having such a lovely time. Do you think you can walk around while we wait on the medics?” Danny prompted.

Steve nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.” He started making another, less assisted lap around the dance floor of the club and then paused and turned to Danny. “He got me good, didn’t he, Danno?”

Danny waved to Chin and Kono. “I got him. Just let me know when the ambulance gets here.”

Chin nodded and the two of them headed outside to wait. Danny looped his arm around Steve’s waist and pulled Steve’s arm over his shoulders. 

“Yeah, babe. He got you pretty good,” Danny agreed.

Steve nodded gravely but then smiled wide at Danny. “I know it’s supposed to be important, but I don’t think I care right now, you know?”

Danny swallowed to keep down the bile that hit the back of his throat. Of course Steve didn’t care, that was why addicts loved heroin so much — everything just went away while they were high. But thinking of the myriad addicts Danny had dealt with in his law enforcement career, and then comparing Steve to them — it made his heart clench and his stomach turn. 

“Danny, why are you unhappy?” Steve said as they made another right turn at the far corner of the dance floor.

Danny gave Steve a weak smile that he knew Steve could see right through — high or not — but he couldn’t muster anything better. “It’s nothing, Steve. Just enjoy your walk, okay?”

Steve frowned and rubbed his hand clumsily over Danny cheek. “I don’t want you to be sad, Danno.”

The door to the club swung open and Danny looked over to see Chin standing there with a smirk. 

“EMS is here,” he called.

“That’s your ride, babe. Come on,” Danny coaxed, herding Steve towards the paramedics who were already hurrying in the door.

*****

“Danny.”

“Mmm.”

“Danny!”

Danny shifted in the reclining plastic chair but didn’t open his eyes. “Steven,” he murmured.

“Danny, why are you here?” 

Danny turned his head towards the unwelcome interrogation and blinked blearily under the fluorescent hospital lights. “Why am I here? What kind of question is that? Why am I here.” Danny shook his head and rolled his eyes. 

“But last night was your night with Grace. I just needed to sleep it off. I don’t even remember half of it. You could have gone home with her,” Steve argued.

Danny flicked the little lever on the side of the chair that returned it to its even less pleasant sitting position and fixed his gaze on Steve. “Steven, do you know what Grace, in her infinite wisdom, told me last night?”

“No, Danny, I don’t.”

“She told me that if her Uncle Steve was in the hospital that something bad must have happened to him, and that no one should be alone in the hospital, because it’s scary. Are you going to argue with her logic, Steven?” Danny admonished.

Steve smiled. “Grace is smart. She gets it from you.”

“Of course she gets it from me. That’s not what I asked. I asked if you were going to argue.”

Steve paused for a moment and Danny fully expected Steve to go off on some other tangent about Navy SEALs and being trained for this, but instead he smiled a little crookedly and said, “No, I’m not going to argue.”

Danny groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. “Amazing. Thank you.”

“I appreciate you staying, Danny,” Steve said.

Danny grumbled. “You had better, my neck is gonna hurt for a week.”

Steve chuckled, but whatever he was going to say Danny never found out because a nurse popped in at that moment. Danny watched as she gave Steve a thorough exam and drew blood for what had to be the fifth time since he’d arrived. 

“I’m gonna look like I actually do heroin if she sticks me too many more times,” Steve joked once the door clicked shut behind the nurse.

The nausea from last night rushed back up and Danny turned away from Steve to give himself a moment to recover.

“Danny, are you alright?” Steve asked, all the levity gone from his voice.

“My neck is killing me, I already told you that.”

“No, I mean aside from your neck. Last night, when you were walking me, you looked like something was wrong, and now here it is again,” Steve pressed.

“Oh, you mean aside from the near death of my partner and best friend due to a forced heroin overdose?” Danny shot back.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.”

Danny scrubbed his hand over his face. “Can you just drop it, Steve?”

“Danny, if there’s something wrong-”

“There’s nothing wrong, Steve. I just- I’ve seen way too many addicts. I’ve heard the same words out of their mouths about how they didn’t care what was wrong or if they were OD’ing. Everything felt good and they tuned the world out. I know- I know what happened was different and I’m not blaming you, but I just- it’s hard not to make the comparison. That’s all, okay?”

Steve sat up, waving his arms a little to clear the tangle of wires and IV tubing. “Danny, look at me. The high from heroin couldn’t- nothing is worth seeing you this upset. Ever, Danny. I don’t want to get high again, and even if you didn’t care I wouldn’t. I don’t like not being in control, I don’t like not caring about the things that matter — about the _people_ that matter. I’m sorry I scared you like that, but I promise that I will never become that person. You have my word.”

Danny ran his fingers through his hair, the sensation of his nails on his scalp enough to ground him just a little. He didn’t worry about his hair which had long since frizzed up after a night in a plastic hospital chair. “I know that, Steve. I know you, and I know that you would never do something like that. I’m just tired and yesterday was stressful; I need some time to get my brain right. That’s all.”

“That’s totally fair, Danny. Just tell me if there’s something I can do. I don’t want you stressed out like this if there’s a way that I can make it better, okay?”

“God, Steve. You’re the one who nearly died yesterday. Calm down with the taking care of other people for once, super-SEAL.”

“And you’re the one who had to watch it.”

Danny leaned forward, elbows on knees and fingers threaded through his hair. “Yeah, yeah I did, Steve.”

Steve scooted all the way over to the edge of the bed, lowered the siderail, and swung his legs over the edge. “Come here, Danny.”

Danny stood up, all stiffness and exhaustion in place of his usual cocky swagger. Steve put his arms out and Danny stepped between them, letting Steve wrap him in a well-needed embrace. 

Steve’s head was warm and his hair prickly against Danny’s cheek as he murmured, “I love you, Danno.”

Danny closed his eyes and smiled. “Love you, too, you big idiot.”

**Author's Note:**

> Narcan is the brand name of the drug naloxone. Naloxone is used by first responders and laypersons to treat opiate overdoses. It comes in injectible and nasal spray formulations.


End file.
